Balew kicks off Bahrain’s medal bid at World Athletics Championships

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahraini elite athlete Birhanu Balew kicks off the Kingdom’s medal bid today at the World Athletics Championships 2023, which get underway last night in Budapest.

Balew will be the first of Bahrain’s four-member national team to compete in the highly anticipated meeting.

He will be going for gold in the men’s 10,000 metres final, scheduled for a 7.25pm start.

Balew is one of 25 athletes on the event’s start list.

He heads into the race with a personal best time of 27 minutes 07.49 seconds, but has yet to run the distance this season.

The 10,000m will be the first of two events Balew will be taking part in. He will also be racing in the men’s 5,000m, which begin on Thursday with the heats.

Balew is joined by just three other athletes at this year’s worlds.

A squad of six was originally named, but 2019 women’s 400m world champion Salwa Eid Naser was forced to withdraw due to injury, and the Bahrain Athletics Association confirmed yesterday that Abdi Ali Gelelchu will no longer be competing due to visa issues.

Balew is thus joined at the Hungarian capital by 2017 women’s marathon world champion Rose Chelimo, 2016 world indoor champion in the women’s 400m Oluwakemi Adekoya and former Asian Games gold-medallist and two-time Asian champion Winfred Yavi.

Oluwakemi begins her campaign tomorrow with her heats, while Winfred will compete in her heats on Wednesday. Rose will run the women’s marathon on Saturday.